Not Now, Not Ever

Sunday, July 5, 2015

What Real OCD Looks Like

Our oldest boy is 31 and autistic.

Not only that but he has a wicked case of OCD and a memory like a steel trap.
Unfortunately, he does not speak well and you can barely understand what he is saying because it is in a very high pitch and not enunciated well.

This is the kind of shit I find around here all the time.

(Crappy cell phone pic)

Damn near every nite he does this, stacks my shoes up on top of each other.
Cracks my ass up.

We have to be very careful about leaving important things like car keys laying around.
If he sees something he thinks doesn't belong there where it is, he moves it somewhere he thinks it does belong or gets rid of it.

I can't tell you how many times we have found stuff up in the back of the kitchen cabinets or in the hall closet.
The worst is when he throws stuff in the garbage.

The really bad part is that he can't tell you where he put something.

As for the memory thing though, the kid can amaze you sometimes.

We went to the fireworks show at a marina park right on the Columbia river last night and there was maybe 1500-2000 people crammed in the grassy area. When he needed to use the bathroom someone would take him up and then when he got done off he would go like a fucking blood hound man. Zig zagging in and out, he would go directly back to where we were sitting on the far side of the crowd by himself like he had a radar lock on the spot.

One time I guess he decided he had been in the house too much lately and he snuck out the front door, walked three fucking miles to WalMart, did God knows what, started walking back, got thirsty I guess and walked into a fucking Walgreens on the way back and swiped a Coke, then walked right out he front door and went back on his merry little way.

We were freaking out, the cops were looking for him and everything.
The neighbor mentioned that she had seen him walking up the hill towards the main arterial headed that way and we finally found him coming back.
This is on a four lane road with four lane intersections between here and there.
The kid knew exactly where that Walmart was.

I started calling him Sneaky Pete after that little episode and had to put alarms on the doors.

A perfect example of how serious his OCD is, he has NetFlix in his bedroom.
He will see a twenty second commercial for , say, Disney's Beauty and the Beast that catches his fancy.
He will sit there for five and six hours straight, rewinding and watching that twenty second clip, over and over and over and over again.

So on the slim to none chance that Angel reads this, I know that of which you speak my dear lady and it does keep one on ones toes.

1 comment
:

So much of that resonates. Teen Queen would light out of grandma and Poppy's backyard with Snoopy and they'd go walkabout. Frantic searches, Amber Alerts and her and Snoop coming home in the back of a squad car. I've NEVER been in the back of a squad car. I take cell phone pics of her and her sister every morning so I have a current accurate record of what they're wearing because I swear you can't remember when you're in a panic. TQ also rearranges and removes things. I keep my momvan keys on me at all times because she's relocated them numerous times. So hugs to you, I know exactly what you mean.

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